A couple of weeks ago, I finally got to check out the muched-buzzed about band The Tillers, nominated for a Cincinnati Entertainment Award in the Folk/Americana category. Playing in the Southgate House's "lounge" room, the trio (playing stand-up bass, guitar, banjo and more) huddled around a single, vintage-looking, multi-directional mic and delivered their sweet, accomplished spin on traditional Folk, Country, Gospel and Blues.

Now, some of the same people who sought to honor King’s legacy are turning their focus on another monumental happening that should further enhance Cincy’s reputation as a blockbuster music town.

This coming Monday marks the 60th anniversary of a profoundly important recording session that took place at 811 Race St. in Downtown. Today, that building is home to CityBeat world headquarters, but 60 years ago, it was Herzog Studios.

Something (or a few things) unanticipated usually happens at the Cincinnati Entertainment Awards show every year. After all, it's a night where hundreds of local musicians are put together in a room with loud music and multiple cash bars.

But the biggest unexpected element of last night’s CEAs at the Madison Theater in Covington was its runtime. Not only a first for the CEAs but perhaps a first in the history of all awards show, the briskly paced show was over early — in about 2 and a half hours, 30 minutes sooner than expected. Efficient stage management and a more streamlined run of show that kept the focus on live performances and the 19 award presentations (winners listed below) helped the event wrap up in record time.

The city of Cincinnati is prepared to formally recognize King Records’ place in the city’s cultural history with a historic marker, a partnership with the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, a King-oriented class or lecture series, a King Records Center on the campus of Xavier University and a prominent role in this year’s Cincinnati Entertainment Awards for Music (CEAs). City Councilman John Cranley, Bootsy Collins and others announced the plans at a news conference this morning at the former King Records site in Evanston.

Cranley read from a motion he introduced to City Council that asks for up to $10,000 in city funds to install a historic marker on the former King Records office/studio in Evanston to be unveiled on Nov. 23, with the remaining funds used to book a former King recording artist to perform at that night’s CEAs. This year is the 65th anniversary of the founding of King Records in Cincinnati.

The Rock Hall of Fame in Cleveland has agreed to construct, donate and maintain the historic marker, and if Cranley’s funding request is granted the Rock Hall president has agreed to attend the marker unveiling and the CEAs. The institution also will work to develop a class or lecture series on King Records at Cincinnati State.

Other newsworthy items from this morning:

• Xavier officials are looking into developing a King Records Center on campus, a history exhibition that also could be a working recording studio for use by students and the public.

• CityBeat Marketing and Promotions Manager Dan McCabe announced that the 12th annual CEAs for music will be the first event held at the reopened Emery Theater in Over-the-Rhine. The CEAs were the final public event at the Emery just before it closed in 1999.

Linford Detweiler of Over the Rhine pleads with gun-rights group to change its ways

In the aftermath of last week's once unfathomable tragedy at Sandy Hook Elementary, discussion about mental health services and gun control — thanks largely to social media — has grown to become the major topic of national discourse.

During campaign cycles, certain music fans complain loudly about artists expressing their opinions about candidates and causes, using the old "shut up and sing" line to insinuate that, as entertainers, one somehow loses the right to speak their mind.

Yet many other serious music fans understand that music and art are a reflection of our society — an artist can offer different perspectives that might help people understand some serious issue better or maybe even help them evolve their own views on particular subjects. I'm not saying we should follow artists blindly like some kind of cult. To quote Oasis, "Please don't put your life in the hands/Of a Rock & Roll band." But I for one am always eager to hear what musicians and other artists and writers I respect have to say about current affairs.

Whether within their own art or speaking out in public, artists have the same right as non-artists to express opinions. It seems that the ones with particularly large followings are the musicians attacked most often for expressing views on politics or other controversial world affairs. They fear the power an artist can have if they express an opinion divergent from their own (in much the way liberals and conservatives fear the power Fox News and MSNBC might wield). Linford Detweiler and Karin Bergquist have never been afraid to speak up. The married braintrust behind longtime Cincinnati-based band Over the Rhine — which has a dedicated and loving international fanbase — has seen some backlash from fans for expressing "polarizing" viewpoints. Merely supporting Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry 12 years ago was enough to trigger anger amongst a few fans. The group isn't known for delving into political issues in their lyrics too often, but they have said that the song "How Long Have You Been Stoned" ("Takin' out Daddy's trash now ain't it a drag/Trippin' on Papa's brand new body bag") from 2003's double-album Ohio was inspired by the Bush administration's rush to war in Iraq.OTR never seemed to experience "Dixie Chicks-level" backlash (which nearly destroyed three musicians' careers); it's more similar to the recent hatred and disapproval aimed at Cincinnati natives The National, a globally successful Indie Rock band that angered some fans by campaigning for Barack Obama during the past two presidential elections. The worst (hopefully) that will ever happen in a case like that is the band might sell two or three less records and suffer insults on social media. For these artists and most like them, it's well worth the price.

Following the recent shootings in Connecticut, Detweiler took to the internet to post an open letter to the National Rifle Association. Detweiler begins the post by writing, "I’m
a songwriter, and my first calling is to process the world in the
context of my songs. But I felt compelled to write the following,
because it’s been on my mind. If you find it useful, please share."

What follows is the open letter from Facebook which has been shared almost 400 times and "liked" nearly 1,000 times. The 200-plus comments are actually fairly civil even when there's disagreement (OTR has a smarter-than-your-average-bear following), though they're not without a few angry and rude missives (it IS the internet after all). In the end, Detweiler has added to the dialogue about a topic that for too long has seemingly been "off the table" due to the power of the NRA and some citizens' particular interpretations of the constitution. (The NRA, at least for now, seems to be self-aware enough this time around to not come out with an insensitive statement, instead echoing the President's call for "meaningful" discussion to help avoid future tragedies like the one last Friday.)

As always, Detweiler is eloquent in his words. No matter what side of the issue you come down on, I highly recommend giving it a read. And if you feel the need to weigh in, here is the link to the original post.

AN OPEN LETTER to the four million members of the National Rifle Association:

Dear fellow citizen,

The NRA released a statement yesterday on your behalf expressing that
you all are “shocked, saddened and heartbroken” by the news of the
massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary. Yes, we all are.

For years
you have willingly given your money to an organization that has largely
ignored pleas from policemen across our country to limit access to
assault weapons and armor piercing ammunition.

You have spent
countless millions of dollars silencing and vilifying voices that, while
supportive of gun ownership, were calling for moderation in the
distribution of weapons that could be used for mass destruction of human
life, including the gun used by Friday’s killer that shot one first
grader 11 times. And 19 other first grade children. And 6 adults in the
space of a few minutes…

When previous heartbroken victims of
gun violence who lost children or spouses tried to speak out to
hopefully help prevent others from suffering similar unspeakable loss,
you rallied for your rights, and gave the suffering no quarter.

For years you have marketed the idea to the citizens of this country
that the US government is a potential enemy bent on harming its own
citizens, and the only way we could all be safe was if we each purchased
a private arsenal of weapons.

While you are reportedly
“shocked, saddened and heartbroken,” how many of your members after
Friday’s shooting have changed their profile pictures to images of guns,
or tweeted messages like “I’m buying a gun the day after Christmas.
Join me! #NRAlifelongmember” How many of your members boasted last
Friday that they were going to take their kids to a firing range?

You continue to lobby in support of all of us carrying concealed
weapons into schools, day care centers, movie theaters, and public
squares. You argue that if only we could all walk around packing heat,
our society could be safer and more peaceful. You lobby for wider “stand
your ground” laws, so we can all load up and take the law into our own
hands and play judge and jury (and God?) in the heat of the moment.

The members among you who call themselves Christian often bemoan the fact that “God has been removed from our schools” and yet those very members
ignore the direct teachings of Jesus as recorded in Scripture that call
upon all followers of Christ to work to break the cycle of violence and
not return evil for evil.

Too many of us have stood by silently
while you’ve played the part of the playground bully in our public
discourse, and distorted our constitution for profit. While we as a
nation have improved upon the vision of our “founding fathers” to end
slavery in this country, to allow women the right to vote, and to outlaw
hate crimes, you cling rigidly to a few words written when the right to
bear arms referred to a single shot muzzle loading rifle.

Your
voice has been powerful and strident, and too many of us have remained
silent in our disbelief of what we were hearing from you. Our silence
has been deadly.

If you are indeed “shocked, saddened and
heartbroken” consider the part (if you are able and willing to join the
rest of us in searching our souls) your organization has played when it
comes to last Friday’s shooting. Consider the fear that your
organization markets. Consider the bitter fruit of your labors that we
must all taste.

And please consider asking forgiveness,
changing your ways, and offering whatever healing you are capable of to
the hurting in Newtown, Connecticut, as opposed to condoning responding
to violence with still ever more violence, ad nauseum.

Unless
you can do your part (along with the rest of us), and change in response
to Friday’s tragedy, there will be still worse to come.

I live
on a small farm in Ohio, own two guns (and my own business) and have
family members who are big game hunters. I am rethinking my
responsibility as a citizen of this country. We all are. I invite you to
do the same.

You’re holding your big press conference
tomorrow. We’ll be listening. But I am confident that many millions of
us will no longer be silent.

I hate when hard working people get ripped off. These kind of injustices can range from phishing scams to pickpockets, insurance companies' denying claims by any means necessary to bank CEO’s using bailout cash for beer money. It’s heart breaking to hear the stories of identity theft leaving people broke and in perpetual debt, or stock- and 401K-holders losing their future to corporate malfeasance.

Not that it is by any means “worse,” but I get a special bug up my ass (I’ve named him “Tony”) when I hear about artists and musicians getting ripped off. Having written about music for 18 years and played music for over 20, I’ve seen all kinds of scams designed to make cash off of the creative endeavors of others. From “battle of the bands” contests with exorbitant, unnecessary “entry” fees to club owners deciding at the end of the night that a band’s performance fee suddenly didn’t fit his budget to record labels putting no money into a project only to blame the band for not selling more albums (and coming at them to “recoup” costs), not paying or actually taking money from artists is its own little cottage industry within the music industry.

The fantastic Cincinnati Folk trio The Tillers will make its television debut Wednesday at 7 p.m. on the USA network. The acoustic band (Michael Oberst, Sean Gell and Jason Soudrette) were interviewed in June by legendary news anchor Tom Brokaw for a documentary about the people and places along Route 50, the stretch of highway that runs from Maryland to California.

Punk band opens Riverbend's season Saturday at PNC Pavilion

Rise Against is the epitome of Punk Rock in this era. They are as far from the status quo from society as bands get, yet record for a major label. Part of the group's mission is to promote progressive issues, both socially and politically. Rise Against recently released its sixth album, Endgame, which features the hit single “Make It Stop” (the video for which was nominated for a MTV Video Music Award last year).

CityBeat spoke with bassist and original member Joe Prinicipe in anticipation for their upcoming show in Cincinnati. They discussed the bands writing process and how they incorporated their socially active direction in their music. Rise Against will be opening Riverbend's PNC Pavilion for the summer this Saturday. A Day to Remember and Title Fight also perform.

CityBeat: Thanks for taking the time to talk to us. I know you are one of the original band members. You guys have been out on it for about 13 years from when you started. Where do you see yourself in 13 more years?

Joe Prinicipe: It’s hard to say with this business but I would say definitely still involved with writing music and performing. Rise Against has no intentions of breaking up. We would like to follow the same career paths as bands like Bad Religion and Social D that are going on 25 or 30 years and are still making relevant music. I hope that’s where I end up.

CB: I saw you last year with the Foo Fighters when you opened up in Columbus. I was wondering if there were any fun and crazy Foo Fighter stories on tour.

JP: It was pretty awesome when there were a group of protesters, I think we were in St. Louis, maybe it was Kansas City, and they were protesting the Foo Fighter show because they did that funny promo video where they were showering together. So this group came out, this very homophobic religious group. They were protesting and the Foo Fighters came out (before the show) dressed provocatively and they were out on a flat bed truck and performed and tried to play as loud as they could to overshadow, overpower the protestors. It totally worked and it was awesome.

CB: They seem fun to be around in general and don’t take it too seriously.

JP: Totally and they are all about enjoying what they have because being on the road and being away from your family is hard enough so you might as well make the most of it.

CB: Your music has been called protest music in the past by the Chicago Tribune and I just wanted to ask about your process to write lyrics around a cause. How do you choose a cause to support and then develop a song around it?

JP: (Singer/guitarist) Tim (McIlrath) writes all the lyrics and the process is very simple. He is just writing what he feels for that day. He writes from a personal perspective on life in general. That’s why our records are not just political, there are socially aware topics, there are environmental issues, there are songs about relationships and how hard it is to be away from our families when we are traveling. We always write music first and he will hear the tone that the music sets and he has a journal, and he will flip through the journal and see if something fits and if not he will write what he thinks will fit the music and that is how it has always been the last 12 years.

CB: Were you guys influenced at an early age or did something happen to you that kind of made you take your music toward this activism tone or did you have a kind of defining moment?

JP: No, it’s just seeing punk rock music. It’s just the nature of punk rock that seems formed as a reaction to the glam era of the 70’s. It’s just a reaction to that so it’s always been about that. It’s all we know. It was something that we didn’t even discuss. It was just kind of a given the direction of Rise Against was going to be that and we are kind of carrying that torch. Bands like Minor Threat and the Bad Brains were definitely singing for change whether it was singing against homophobia or social issues, but that’s kind of what the unspoken goal that the band has always had.

CB: What is the biggest way your music has been able to make a difference or make a change?

JP: I would say the effect that “Make it Stop” has had on young kids. Kids in high school trying to get through it all. We have gotten so many e-mails that the song is helping them through the hardest time of their life and that is incredibly rewarding. I would say “Make it Stop” stands out as that.

CB: Your new album came out last year in the spring. Do you have any new music in the works?

JP: No, we still have a whole year of touring on Endgame. I think I always have song ideas in the back of my head and so does Tim. It’s kind of an ongoing thing anyway. We won’t actually have anything, officially new until the end of 2013.

CB: Do you have any crazy Cincinnati stories from the past or any fond memories?

JP: Not really. Cincinnati is Bogart's, right?

CB: It’s Bogart's and this time you are at Riverbend which is outside.

JP: That’s right. The only thing I recall is from Zach our guitar player. His old band played Bogart's and someone was shot like 20 feet away from him. That’s really it.

CB: I think you are in a little safer place by the river this time. I have this new game and it’s a table game with quirky questions and people just give their first thoughts around it, so I have been experimenting with this a little and I have three questions from this game for you. The first question is what skill do you possess that most people don’t know about?

JP: Let’s see, nothing hidden, although I am a complete coffee snob and I have an espresso machine at my house and I take that very seriously. It has to be perfect. I have to time all my espresso shots as they come out of the machine. So I guess that.

CB: So you make the perfect espresso, that’s your hidden talent.

JP: Absolutely.

CB: What is under your bed?

JP: Actually nothing because my wife is a neat freak so nothing can be on the floor.

CB: If you are on the bus it is somebody else sleeping under the bed in the bunk.

JP: As far as the bus goes, our tour manager is usually in the bunk below me so I have him snoring …

CB: What song would you pick to sing karaoke?

JP: I’m really bad at karaoke, oddly enough.

CB: You don’t have to be good. I don’t think that’s the purpose of karaoke.

JP: Just high energy, just come and sing with us and have a good time. It is all about interacting with our fans and just everyone singing along. We are all there for the same reason. It is a good way to let off some steam from the week prior. Just come out and have a good time.

Walk the Moon was one of my personal highlights from the recent MidPoint Music Festival, where the band played a high-energy set wonderfully showcasing its dance-friendly beats, New Wave jubilance and Art Pop creativity. As solid as the foursome is live, I was still a bit stunned by how advanced, imaginative and proficient Walk the Moon comes across on its enchanting debut album, i want! i want!, which is to be released Saturday in conjunction with a multimedia event at The Mockbee.

Cincinnati composer and founding member of MUSE Cincinnati’s Women’s Choir Therese Edell passed away last month after an extended battle with MS. She was 61. Considered a pioneer of “Women’s Music,” Edell was born in Pennsylvania and moved to Cincinnati in 1969 to attend CCM. Edell and longtime collaborator Betsy Lippitt toured the country and were favorites at Women’s Music festivals. Her releases include 1970’s Prophecy’s Child and 1978’s milestone From Women’s Faces, as well as the 1990 For Therese, a compilation of her songs performed by various fans/supporters as a 40th birthday present.